The number of reports of online child abuse in Europe has dropped 46 percent since European privacy laws came into force in December 2020. ICT companies like Facebook no longer use software to detect online child abuse since the new legislation.
Children's rights organizations CKM, Defense for Children-ECPAT, International Justice Mission and Terre des Hommes raised the alarm about this.
In September 2020, the European Commission proposed a temporary arrangement to allow ICT companies to continue using software to detect online child abuse, after European privacy legislation (Electronic Communications Code (EECC)) came into force on Dec. 20, 2020. Companies have been using that software since 2009. The temporary arrangement applies until final legislation that is under development takes effect.
However, the European Parliament did not approve the temporary arrangement. Consequently, ICT companies have stopped using the software. This allows images of child abuse to be spread undisturbed through social media.
According to the EU Commission on the Rights of the Child, the number of reports has dropped by almost half, while online child abuse has not declined. In fact, according to Europol , since the beginning of the pandemic, more material of online child abuse is being searched for on the Internet and more of it is being distributed. Criminals are also more actively trying to contact children.
Within the European Parliament, there is particular division over the scanning of text in chat conversations for signs of grooming (online grooming). They fear for the privacy of EU citizens. To protect privacy, the European Parliament has proposed conditions that software to detect child abuse must meet. Anti-grooming tools that meet the set security conditions would therefore be allowed to be used, according to child rights organizations. Children's rights organizations are calling for work to be done on sound permanent legislation and, in the meantime, to adopt a position of status quo ante so that companies can use the software as they have done in recent decades to detect child abuse.
